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6/25/2020 Details of 1999 (Gyo-Tsu) 35 | Judgments of the Supreme Court unlawfulness of the election shall be declared in the main text of the judgment, but the election itself shall maintain its validity. JusticeYAMAGUCHI Shigeru JusticeONO Mikio JusticeCHIKUSA Hideo JusticeKAWAI Shinichi JusticeENDO Mitsuo JusticeIJIMA Kazutomo Presiding Judge JusticeFUKUDA Hiroshi JusticeFUJII Masao JusticeMOTOHARA Toshifumi JusticeKANATANI Toshihiro JusticeKITAGAWA Hiroharu JusticeKAMEYAMA Tsugio JusticeOKUDA Masamichi JusticeKAJITANI Gen (*Translated by Sir Ernest Satow Chair of Japanese Law, University of London) About the Supreme Court   Access to the Supreme Court  Organization Chart of the Supreme Court  Justices of the supreme court Judicial System in Japan Publications Judgments of the Supreme Court  Budgets Supreme Court Library  The Legal Training and Research Institute of Japan  Topics The Training and Research Institute for Court Oﬃcials Supreme Court of Japan 4-2 Hayabusa-cho, Chiyoda-ku, Tokyo 102-8651 JAPAN Phone: (81)-(0)3-3264-8111 Copyright © Supreme Court of Japan. All rights reserved. https://www.courts.go.jp/app/hanrei_en/detail?id=458 23/23

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1999 (Gyo Tsu) 35 [Judgment of the Grant Bench, dismissed by the Supreme Court]

Judgment

Question Presented: Whether the unequal treatment between independent and political party candidates regarding broadcasting during campaigns was unconstitutional.

Alleged Acts: The small constituency system is constitutional; however, the Law on Public Elections allows candidates from political parties to broadcast campaign materials, but does not provide the same for independent candidates. The plaintiffs sought invalidation of the small constituency framework based on unequal opportunities to candidates.

Summary: The representation system is left to the Diet and the small constituency method may only be overturned if the representation is found to be in excess of that discretion. The court determined that reason for the political broadcasting difference seeks to combat the greater number of candidates running in smaller constituencies. However, the court determined that the broadcasting difference produced both quality and quantity differences in the candidates from these areas. Further, the role of broadcasting in modern elections had surmounted to an unreasonable difference in the candidate campaign mechanisms.

Conclusion: The court found that while there were differences concerning the campaigns between independent candidates and those who belong to a political party, this difference was not to such a degree that it was not generally reasonable. Therefore, it was not unconstitutional.

Legal Issue(s)

Electoral Maps and Districting
Social Media

Region: Asia-Pacific

Country: Japan

Language of Decision

English

Court: Supreme Court

Election Type: Review of law

Date of decision: Oct 19, 1999

Geolocation

Latitude: 35.73293063

Longitude: 139.7553762

: Geolocation

Primary Documents

1999 (Gyo-Tsu) 35 _ Judgments of the Supreme Court.pdf
English
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Election Judgments - IFES

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1999 (Gyo Tsu) 35 [Judgment of the Grant Bench, dismissed by the Supreme Court]

Primary Documents

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